European Work

Domestic Violence: Coordinating the Intervention (DVCI)

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Standing Together against Domestic Violence, Asociatia Catharsis (Romania), Dimitra Education & Consulting S.A (Greece) and Region de Murcia (Spain) will work together over the period of twenty-four months from November 2016 to November 2018 to deliver the DVCI project.

The DVCI project will develop, test and implement innovative, work-based Continuing Vocational Educational Training (CVET) to support the crucial role of DV Strategic Coordination.

In the UK and across European, national, regional, and local strategies aimed at tackling VAWG, ‘multi-agency working and information sharing’ is a recurring theme in recognition that an integrated approach is essential to enabling effective interventions to be delivered that support and protect survivors of domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG).

The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women (the ‘Istanbul Convention’) sets out a set of standards, including that training for DV professionals should support coordinated, multi-agency cooperation to allow for comprehensive and appropriate handling of referrals in cases covered by the convention (Article 15)(2).

Aim of the Project

The “Domestic Violence: Coordinating the Intervention (DVCI)” project aims to increase the skills and expertise of professionals, including statutory commissioners and policy makers, who are responsible for leading and coordinating responses to domestic abuse and VAWG.

The project will build on the pioneering Coordinated Community Response (CCR) Model developed by Standing Together Against Domestic Violence and implemented in Kensington and Chelsea and a number of other areas in the United Kingdom (UK).

In the UK, the role of Domestic Violence Coordinator (DVC) has become established across local and regional authorities to coordinate local partnerships and interventions. Standing Together has established the national DVC network to support networking and capacity building amongst DVCs. Currently, job descriptions and levels of skills and influence differ vastly, and there is no standard training that focuses on strengthening competencies and skills to support the role of DV Strategic Coordination. The DVCI project addresses this gap.

Developing new partnerships at an EU level will enable the sharing and transferring of good practice in VET for domestic abuse interventions, ensuring the training developed is relevant and based on good practice. Improved competencies and skills of DV Coordinators will have positive impact on local, national and EU responses to DVA; ultimately ensuring survivors of DVA receive better and more effective support.

Key objectives

1) To share good practice and develop an EU core curriculum and competencies for the DV Strategic Coordination role, involving relevant agencies with responsibility for dealing with DV and VAWG

2) To develop nationally-adapted curricula for developing and delivering a coordinated community response to DV in the UK, Greece, Romania and Spain

3) To pilot and accredit innovative work-based Vocational Educational Training (VET) to 160 professionals with responsibility for leading or coordinating DV interventions in four national contexts (45 in UK and Romania and Greece, 25 in Spain).

4) To raise awareness of the need to improve skills of DV coordinators at a local, national and EU level national and promote the EU curricula and training to support improved services for victims of DVA and VAWG more widely.

The target groups

DV Strategic and operational leads (primary target group): policy/decision makers, commissioners and managers of DV interventions, including from local authorities, judicial and police, health and education sector and housing associations.

**The European Commission support for the production of any following publications does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.**

About us

Standing Together supports organisations, including the police, criminal
justice partners, social services, healthcare workers and charities, to
identify and respond effectively together to domestic violence. Our ultimate
aim is to help these agencies to work in partnership, so that people receive
the best support at the time they need it.